Edwina Bartholomew has revealed how her marriage has changed since having a child, the silver lining of being pregnant in a pandemic, and the very 2021 way she found out she was expecting.
WATCH Edwina Bartholomew Opens Up After Sunrise Covid-19 Scare
The Sunrise newsreader and her husband Neil Varcoe, who wed on their NSW farm in 2018, share one-year-old daughter Molly and recently announced they are expecting their second child.
Edwina, who said her pregnancy has helped take her mind off the doom and gloom of the 24/7 news cycle, revealed she will take six months off once the baby arrives in February.
“Because of the hours I work, and because COVID has cancelled overseas trips, I feel it’s been a really great balance between parenting and work,” she told Stellar.
“But [parenting] is definitely a mental adjustment. I unashamedly spent two decades working really, really hard. So you don’t want to throw that away, but [you also] have to be happy to take a pause.”
Edwina, Neil and little Molly plan to spend time at their farmhouse in NSW’s Capertee Valley when they become a family-of-four.
The journalist admitted her relationship with Neil has changed since having Molly, who turns two in December.
“It’s been wonderful to have that common purpose in parenting, but that can also be a double-edged sword because it becomes all-consuming. It sounds depressing, but we are just kind of getting by,” she said.
The 38-year-old said this time around her and Neil are more focused on the logistics and practicalities of bringing a sibling for Molly into the world.
Edwina also revealed she had an inkling she was pregnant while filling out an online questionnaire to book in for her COVID jab.
The mother-of-one came across a question asking if she was pregnant, which prompted her instincts to kick in.
“I thought… you know? I’ve been feeling really tired and not great. So, maybe? So I took a pregnancy test and it revealed that I was. It was a bit unplanned, but also great timing,” she said.
Last month Edwina faced a daunting scare after she was revealed to be a close contact of a Sunrise crew member who tested positive for COVID.
She was forced to self-isolate at home for two weeks, but thankfully didn’t catch the virus herself.
“It was a huge fright. Huge fright. It was such a sleepless night. If I had it, my husband would have it, he has chronic fatigue, my daughter would have it,” she told her colleagues via Zoom at the time.
“The thought that I would infect the rest of my family with this hideous, hideous condition was just so scary.
“I’m doing okay… very grateful to be at least half-vaccinated and thankful so much that the other staff member was double vaccinated.”
Edwina, who said getting the vaccine gave her a “sense of freedom,” she has received hundreds of messages from expectant mothers who were on the fence about getting the jab.
“It was both heartening and heartbreaking, because these women were saying how they’d been bullied online to not get the vaccine but were now going to speak to their doctor, which is all I was suggesting. Just consult your health professional,” she said.
But Edwina wasn’t shaken by the negative remarks she received for her choice to get vaccinated, saying she instead felt “empowered”.
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